October 2001 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Comics Preordered by North American Comics Shops
Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

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Dollar preorders for October 2001 were the best since September 1999, and dollar proerders for comic books plus trade paperbacks were the best since November 1998. However, Comics and TPB dollar preorders for the first 10 months of 2001 were still $4.5 million behind the same period in 2000.

Diamond did release dollar rankings for the Top 300 comics; these will be added at a later date.

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 300 chart.
Items marked (resolicited) were offered in an earlier month but never shipped; disregard any previously reported figure, as earlier orders were canceled when the books were resolicited.
Distributor charts are regional commodity reports, not measures of a work's total reach. Read our FAQ.
The links lead to current listings for each issue on eBay. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

The Top 25 Graphic Novels sold had a total retail price of$1.7 million

(-7% vs. same month previous year)

Category to date for year:$16.34 million(+19% vs. previous year)

COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVEL DOLLAR SALES

The Top 300 Comics and Top 25 Graphic Novels sold had a combined total retail price of$19.84 million

(+11% vs. same month previous year)

Category to date for year:$167.44 million(-3% vs. previous year)

Average cost of comics in the Top 300:$2.98

Average cost of comics in the Top 300, weighted by orders:$2.83

Average cost of comics in the Top 25:$2.60

Median cost of comics in the Top 300:$2.95

Most common cost of comics in the Top 300:$2.95

MARKET SHARES

Share of Overall Final Order Dollars

Marvel

31.05%

DC

30.54%

Image

7.89%

Dark Horse

5.17%

Viz

2.50%

Wizard

2.43%

Chaos

1.88%

Crossgen

1.73%

Harris

1.09%

Diamond UK

1.04%

Others

14.70%

Share of Overall Preordered Units

Marvel

42.66%

DC

31.60%

Image

6.97%

Dark Horse

3.87%

Crossgen

2.08%

Wizard

1.79%

Chaos

1.49%

Viz

1.11%

Tokyopop

0.51%

Harris

0.37%

Fantagraphics

0.30%

Antarctic Press

0.21%

Dynamic Forces

0.07%

Other

6.97%

Share of Overall Preordered Dollars

Marvel

37.60%

DC

30.54%

Image

6.07%

Dark Horse

5.52%

Wizard

2.62%

Crossgen

1.87%

Chaos

1.68%

Viz

1.66%

Tokyopop

0.78%

Fantagraphics

0.71%

Antarctic Press

0.52%

Harris

0.48%

Dynamic Forces

0.46%

Other

9.49%

Items in Top 300

DC

78

Marvel

61

Image

22

Dark Horse

18

Archie

16

Viz

12

CPM

9

Crossgen

9

Oni

8

Tokyopop

8

Chaos

6

Bongo

5

Fantagraphics

5

Ironcat

4

Antarctic

3

Radio

3

Sirius

3

Abstract

2

Avatar

2

Comic Cavalcade

2

Kenzer

2

Aardvark-Vanaheim

1

Airwave

1

Basement

1

Crusade

1

Dancing Elephant

1

Dork Storm

1

El Capitan

1

Funk-o-tron

1

Harris

1

Humanoids

1

Insight

1

NBM

1

Realm

1

Renaissance

1

Studio G

1

Tusk

1

Studio Foglio

1

Vanguard

1

Wizard

1

Share of Units in Top 300

Marvel

45.57%

DC

33.18%

Image

7.54%

Dark Horse

3.61%

Crossgen

2.25%

Chaos

1.30%

Viz

0.83%

Archie

0.78%

Bongo

0.54%

Oni

0.48%

Tokyopop

0.40%

Abstract

0.35%

CPM

0.33%

Avatar

0.31%

Harris

0.23%

Wizard

0.21%

Kenzer

0.19%

Fantagraphics

0.19%

Sirius

0.18%

Antarctic

0.15%

Comic Cavalcade

0.13%

Aardvark-Vanaheim

0.11%

El Capitan

0.11%

Ironcat

0.10%

Studio Foglio

0.10%

Insight

0.10%

Radio

0.09%

Humanoids

0.07%

Basement

0.06%

Airwave

0.05%

NBM

0.05%

Tusk

0.04%

Studio G

0.04%

Dork Storm

0.04%

Renaissance

0.03%

Funk-o-tron

0.03%

Vanguard

0.03%

Crusade

0.03%

Realm

0.02%

Dancing Elephant

0.02%

Share of Dollars in Top 300

Marvel

44.30%

DC

33.55%

Image

7.48%

Dark Horse

3.94%

Crossgen

2.36%

Chaos

1.44%

Viz

0.91%

Archie

0.60%

Bongo

0.50%

Oni

0.49%

Tokyopop

0.45%

Abstract

0.36%

CPM

0.34%

Avatar

0.32%

Harris

0.25%

Fantagraphics

0.23%

Wizard

0.22%

Antarctic

0.20%

Kenzer

0.20%

Comic Cavalcade

0.20%

Sirius

0.19%

El Capitan

0.19%

Studio Foglio

0.14%

Radio

0.11%

Ironcat

0.10%

Insight

0.10%

Aardvark-Vanaheim

0.09%

Humanoids

0.07%

Basement

0.07%

Airwave

0.05%

NBM

0.05%

Vanguard

0.05%

Tusk

0.04%

Studio G

0.04%

Dork Storm

0.04%

Renaissance

0.03%

Funk-o-tron

0.03%

Crusade

0.03%

Realm

0.02%

Dancing Elephant

0.02%

Dollar Share of Top 300 Comics & Top 25 TPBs

DC

44.60%

Marvel

26.96%

Dark Horse

11.47%

Viz

5.50%

Tokyopop

3.70%

Dancing Elephant

2.84%

Image

1.71%

Moonstone

1.08%

Crossgen

0.54%

Chaos

0.33%

Archie

0.14%

Bongo

0.11%

Oni

0.11%

Abstract

0.08%

CPM

0.08%

Avatar

0.07%

Harris

0.06%

Fantagraphics

0.05%

Wizard

0.05%

Antarctic

0.05%

Kenzer

0.05%

Comic Cavalcade

0.04%

Sirius

0.04%

El Capitan

0.04%

Studio Foglio

0.03%

Rebel

0.03%

Radio

0.02%

Ironcat

0.02%

Insight

0.02%

Aardvark-Vanaheim

0.02%

Humanoids

0.02%

Basement

0.02%

Airwave

0.01%

NBM

0.01%

Vanguard

0.01%

Tusk

0.01%

Studio G

0.01%

Dork Storm

0.01%

Beyond

0.01%

Renaissance

0.01%

Funk-o-tron

0.01%

Crusade

0.01%

Realm

0.01%

Samson

0.00%

Product Breakdown of Diamond Sales

Comics

58.93%

Toys & Models

15.04%

Graphics

9.97%

Magazines

4.01%

Videos

2.98%

Books

2.80%

Cards

1.62%

Games

1.26%

Prints & Posters

0.96%

Non-Comic Novelties

0.72%

Diamond Publications

0.71%

Apparel

0.70%

Comic Novelties

0.25%

Comic Supplies

0.03%

Card Supplies

0.02%

Retailer Sales Tools

0.01%

THE FINE PRINT

The monthly sales estimates at right are for items preordered from Diamond Comic Distributors, the largest comic-book distributor in North America.

Diamond does not publish sales figures; instead it publishes "indexed" sales tables, in which it keys orders for all comics it lists sales for to a single comic book (usually Batman), with one “order index point” being equal to 1% of that title’s orders.

Along with other methods, we use the actual Diamond final orders from titles to approximate what an order index point equals each month.The result is applied to the Diamond charts to produce the estimates seen at right.

The figures represent only those comics and graphic novels that Diamond preorded by North American retailers in the calendar month. While Diamond's sales represent the majority of periodicals in circulation, they are a smaller portion of the overall graphic novel market.

Preordered items may not have actually shipped in the month for which they were ordered — and some were not shipped at all. Such items may reappear in later preorder charts marked as resolicitations; in those cases the preorders appearing in earlier lists are cancelled.

Rankings of all comic books that eventually came out can be found in the year's report in the the Year Overview section, where available.

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